From building bridges to tutoring rural kids, youth volunteers make a difference around the country

“For a safe, civilised and developed city” is the title of the 2008 Youth Volunteer Summer Campaign from May to August.

Youth volunteers in Bac Son District of Lang Son City distribute family planning leaflets as part of Youth Month in the area.

The campaign will be divided into four one-month phases - “For the next generation - a resolute Youth Union,” “Volunteer youth for the community” and “Youth and Ha Noi culture.”

A number of activities have been organised to help students coming to Hanoi to sit their university entrance exams, such as cleaning the city’s lakes, helping out at rehabilitation centres and promoting road safety. Students will also be given the chance to donate blood.

Free health checks will be conducted and free medicines handed out to those in need.

Other activities include assisting rural youth to access loans and technology for agriculture production, and promoting reproductive health among young workers in industrial zones.

The Ha Noi Youth Union will also carry out voluntary activities in Laos and set up club for foreign students in Hanoi.

The Youth Union also plans to promote computer science and the internet.

Voluntary youth programmes have made an invaluable contribution to the development of the country in recent years.

Over the last few years, volunteers have actively contributed towards poverty reduction in rural and mountainous areas.

Youth association members built bridges in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region, launched environmental protection programmes and actively promoted road safety.

Last year, Youth Union campaigns attracted nearly 9mil volunteers - twice as many as the year before.

More than 2,400 youth groups visited the provinces to increase technological awareness and popularise computer science.

The Youth Union last year organised summer camps for more than three million children and raised some VND80bil (US$5mil) for 66,000 impoverished youngsters.

Around 94,000 student volunteers participated in environmental protection programmes, while more than 30,000 volunteers donated blood.

Volunteers last year built 775 houses for the needy and handed out presents to more than 64,000 families of war martyrs and invalids.

(Source: Viet Nam News)

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